


Silence

by RoseisaRoseisaRose



Series: Everyday I'm Drabbling [10]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Drabble, Endgame, F/M, I don't know man, angst and fluff?, fluffy angst?, like people are dead but not our intrepid heroes so like, that's cool, way too many music metaphors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:21:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24314959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseisaRoseisaRose/pseuds/RoseisaRoseisaRose
Summary: the war is over and Annette has forgotten her melodiesshort lil piece! it's sweet I promise.
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Series: Everyday I'm Drabbling [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1649380
Comments: 14
Kudos: 63





	Silence

Annette always sang for Felix when the dust settled on tragedy.

After Grondor Field, most obviously, when she sat next to him and ran her fingers through his hair and picked out wordless songs from their childhood. But he’d also sought her singing after they each took their first kill in battle, finding her in the kitchens and asking her if she was hungry to avoid asking her if she could still hear screams. He’d followed her into the library the night they reunited with Dimitri, or his ghost, and when he asked her how she planned to rebuild following an explosion, she hadn’t realized he was speaking about things larger than her library song. Perhaps he hadn’t, either.

After the flash, after the dust settled. He listened for her song, then.

Enbarr was a victory, but it felt like a tragedy. Annette stood outside the palace and watched Byleth lead Dimitri away; she turned and saw the battalion commanders taking stock of the injured and the dead; she thanked the goddess her closest allies were the former. Felix among them – she quickly spotted him, sitting against a wall at the edge of the chaos, nursing a poorly bandaged arm, scanning the horizon as if danger might still appear at any moment. She walked forward without realizing; when his eyes landed on her and shone briefly with relief, she walked faster.

She slid down the wall next to him and suddenly felt the full weight of seven years of fighting.

“Your arm,” she said without preamble. She reached towards him. He didn’t flinch or pull away, like he used to, but he caught her hand before she could reach him fully, pushing their entwined fingers to rest on his knee.

“Save your strength,” he chided gently. “They’ll need your healing soon enough.”

She wanted to protest, but she didn’t want to speak. His pulse was steady against hers, and when she tried to raise her hand to his arm again he pushed it back down, and they’d won the war and it felt like a disaster. She’d halfway believed that when they’d gotten to Enbarr they could talk their way to peace and reconciliation. When Dorothea flung thunder at Annette it was like she didn’t even see her anymore.

“I can’t sing right now,” Annette whispered to Felix. “I don’t want to.”

It felt selfish to say, when it was the only way she could help him. And it wasn’t the right thing to say – she did want to, she just couldn’t. She couldn’t remember the melodies.

His grip tightened against hers, and she looked away. She’d seen Felix angry, and grief-stricken, and so frustrated he could hardly speak. But he’d never seemed disappointed, not towards her. It was a fine time to start.

“You don’t have to,” he finally said, and it was so soft and so sincere and she must have misheard him. “Silence is enough. Silence is a song, with you.”

“Silence is the opposite of music, Felix,” Annette said, a logician to the end. “And it’s all I can hear right now.”

“Then listen more carefully,” Felix said, and the pause as he took a breath was overwhelming. He pressed his fingers against the inside of her wrist. “Your heart still beats, and it’s music. You’re breathing, and it’s music.” He slid his fingers down her palm, interlocking their fingers once more. “We’re both alive, and you’re here, and that’s the only song I ever wanted.”

The dust settled, and Annette didn’t sing, and she held Felix’s hand as they listened to the requiem around them.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't remember what the prompt for this one was anymore but it's very notable to me that I *did* get it under 600 words. a victory!
> 
> The working title for this fic _was_ Four Minutes Thirty Three Seconds because I'm a pretentious gal but luckily people with good sense talked me out of it.
> 
> [ Twitter link! Come say hi! ](https://twitter.com/Rose3Writes)


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